Destined to be a Hallowe'en NSSS for another bookcrosser...

RELEASE NOTES:

On it's way to my NSSHS partner.

Arrived yesterday - my lovely NSSHS with yummy halloween chocs. Thank you so much this is a perfect book for me, and one I have been thinking of buying since the booker was announced, I am glad I resisted the urge. What a lovely surprise!! (sorry for a slightly late JE my ISP was down in my area last night)

Edit - well it looks like a ring has started even before I have read it : ) -UK only due to weight of the book

list so far:


Lyzzybee
LindyB28
Scotsbookie
Anglersrest
Flanners
Birmingham-Rose
caterinaAnna
cross-patch
Wyjane - it's here
platypussj
Astrofiammante

Synopsis
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook's son trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy. When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai's blossoming romance with her handsome tutor they are forced to consider their colliding interests. The judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world of conflicting desires every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal.

I decided to start this almost straight away because I couldn't wait to read it : )
This is a beautifully written book. I wasn't disappointed at all. The language is lovely as is the imagery, it has a melancholic feel, and the interplay between the characters is brilliant. The cook who misses his son - illegally living in America - so much he starts to see him as a figment of his immagination, and the son - shouting awkwardly down the phone at each other is only one of many poignant moments for me. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you so much swanofkennet for giving me the chance to read this. It is now reserved for a ring.

RELEASE NOTES:

Passing to Lyzzybee at the meet up.

Received from Heaven-Ali today. Ooh it looks wonderful! This is the choice for the bookgroup I'm in for our January discussion so I'll read it carefully and slowly with much note-taking! I'll see LindaB over the Christmas vacation so will pass it on then. What a treat!

Oops - I've accidentally kept this over a month - sorry! I will see LindyB tomorrow or on the 30th so will pass it on then.

I have to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. There were moments of excellent description and evocativeness, but not much really happened and I thought some of the writing was a bit overblown for the sake of it. I can see why it won the Booker - it's political, it relates the political to the personal, it's very literary, but I felt it was a little self-conscious.

I mean, it wasn't bad - there was a palpable sense of building tension and the relation between the cook and his son was well done, but I didn't feel I knew and loved any of the characters.

RELEASE NOTES:

Given to LindyB28 today.

This is (admittedly) a rather belated JE since Lyzzybee handed me this book on Weds and I'm currently halfway through it!
Thanks Ali for organising the ring :-)

Kiran Desai is incredibly talented. The juxtaposition of the different stories of immigration, emigration, colonial legacy and new capitalist imperialism raise questions and themes that I had never perceived before. The novel is certainly not a comforting read: the encroachment of Nepali unrest during the chronology of the main narrative is unflinching in its exposation of pain and distress. The west (for once) is shown to be as "uncivilised" as the land that the immigrants choose to leave - early twentieth century Cambridge is squalid and unwelcoming to its incomers; 1980s America is inhuman in its treatment of the workers whose lives fall beneath the attention of the authorities. Yet both these destinations have a powerful imaginative hold over those left behind: the cups of tea and cheese on toast with which the judge, Lola and others punctuate their lives are more about generating a particular version of selfhood for each individual than about genuine nostalgia for a place which has turned its face away from such people.

I was interested to read Lyzzybee's comments about the prose... because I found that I constantly wanted to note down some of Desai's beautifully absurd turns of phrase and lovely encapsulations of thought. In fact, one comment on justice and language may actually make it into my dissertation because it seems as applicable to fourteenth century England as to twentieth century India.

My main gripe with the novel was one which stems from my romantic inner self rather than my literary critic self. I just wanted a bit more happiness and resolution from the final chapter!

I've got Scotsbookie's address so will get this in the post asap.
Thanks to Rosie, Ali and Liz for sending this book on its journey so far :-)

Arrived safely in my hands this morning after DH picked it up from the post office. Thank you LindyB28 & for the choccie extras!

I've got a bit of a ring crisis at the moment this is the 5th one to arrive with me but I'm on holiday next week so will get to it asap.

Well much to my disappointment & after 82 pages of struggling I'm going to have to give up on this. I'm finding no spark to my imagination, everything on the page seems flat, every so often I get a flash of character but it is so brief. This was a book I was so looking forward to read, that I decided not to struggle on through but stop where I was & perhaps at another time I'll be able to pick it back up & enjoy it then.

I have AnglersRest's details so will have the book on its travels again after the weekend. Sorry Heaven-Ali that I have nothing more positive to say.

The book is now on its way to AnglersRest.

Arrived this morning with a super postcard of Neidpath Castle. Thanks scotsbookie for sending. I am starting to get a few rings again, but should get this moving within the month.

I am disappointed to say that I have really struggled with this book. I found it immensely difficult to remain focused despite holding onto the book for over the month. I am now at the point that if I can't manage it in five weeks I'm probably not going to.

Thanks for sharing. I have flanners' address, so this will be traveling on Monday 19th.

Arrived safely - thank you!

Well, this certainly makes no concessions to the happy ever after brigade (of which, like Lindy I am a fully-paid up member!); it's an extremely bleak and uncomfortable read. This author is unquestionably talented and I'm sure will go from strength to strength but I'm sorry to say, I felt like I'd read this book (or a version of it) many, many times before. And I was irritated by the statement that 'real' poverty doesn't exist in the US. Grinding poverty exists in every country in the world and although the economic underclass of America may have access to toilets, the level of deprivation and alienation from the mainstream that exists there is just as real and just as vicious as the immigrant experience.

I'll check Birmingham-Rose hasn't moved and with luck the book should be on its way this week.

This book was received in the mail yesterday, I will endevour to get on with it as soon as possible.

Sorry for holding this book up. With the house move I don't think I have given this book the chance that it deserves, like a couple of the other readers I found that I couldn't really get into it, I read and re-read several pages and just became frustrated with it, so I will send it onto CaterinaAnna ASAP!

Arrived earlier this week: my apologies for not journalling sooner.
I'm currently ploughing my way through back issues of New Internationalist which, given the comments below, seems appropriate for framing the book and may even make it seem more optimistic ;o)

Well I'm on the side of those who enjoyed this book. It isn't a happy story, or an easy read, but as with A Fine Balancethere is a sad inevitability to the fates of the characters.

I also enjoyed the writing itself, there were interesting phrases that stuck, but only as part of their context: new and fitting descriptions rather than jarring unexpected metaphors. So I'm with LindyB28 rather than LyzeeBee on that one.

Thank ou to everyone involved in the ring so far.

RELEASE NOTES:

Finally going in the post this morning, with apologies for the delay.

Arrived this morning. Love the 'outer'; hope I love the 'inner'!

I agree it is difficult to read, although not sure why - not helped by the short chapters and jumpy paragraphs, so it was hard to get a run at it. I'm also with LindyB28 in enjoying the language and style used by Kiran Desai, but miss a complete story. A classic literary novel.

Forgot to say:- Posted to wyjane today.

sorry I didn't journal this sooner - I was away when it arrived and it got shelved and has only just turned up. Will get on with it now - its my bookgroup read for October so I'm interested to read the comments from everyone else - seems split between 'admirers' and 'couldn't get into it-ers' Wonder which I'll be?

I did find this rather a depressing book, everyone's lives seemed to be spiralling into despair, even Sai's, and I got a bit fatalistic about how they would ever survive. However I read it with interest and felt it was finely drawn, there were lots of places where I felt I should be noting things down to help me remember them, but I didn't. On balance I'm relly glad I read it, thanks to Heaven-Ali for sharing it.
Will get it on its way asap.

I have no idea when this book arrived but it's here now!! Thank you wyjane, and for the v. interesting article that accompanies the book.

I have another ring in front then will crack on with this one. Apologies in advance if this takes a little while, I have quite a lot of course work to plough through at the moment *sigh*!

An amazing book, tragic and poetic, I found it to be very rich in detail and would perhaps consider reading it again as I think it works on many levels. It opened my eyes to the confusion of culture, colonialisation and perception. Despite an overwhelming sense of despair at times, I think the book did end in hope and with the chance of redemption for many of the characters. Thank you for sharing, Heaven-Ali.

A big thank you to platypussj for granting this wish from my my wish list.

The blurb reads:

"In the north-eastern Himalayas, at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga, in a crumbling isolated house, there lives a cantankerous old judge, who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook trying to make his way in the US and stay a step ahead of the immigration services, this is far from easy.

When a Nepalese insurgency threatens the blossoming romance between Sai and her handsome tutor, they, too, are forced to consider their colliding interests. And the judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world of conflicting desires - every moment holding out he possibility of hope or betrayal.

A story of such depth and emotion, hilarity and imagination, rich, beautiful and infinitely wise, The Inheritance of Loss is a glorious second novel from the author of the universally praised Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard".

From the previous journal entries, I can see that this book has polarised opinion. I'm with those who found it unengaging and difficult to get through (I've been working my way through it for three weeks, which is unusual for me).

I found Biju's story, in America, more interesting than that of Sai and the others in Nepal, as it had at least a little pace. In general, the book lacked energy for me. It meandered on frustratingly with little narrative and hardly more characterisation. By the time I reached the end, I'd lost track of the back stories of some of the characters (Lola, Noni, Uncle Potty, Father Booty, Mrs Sen).

I can see that, through the parallel stories of people living away from their homeland (Biju in the US, Indians in Nepal), and the extent to which they attempt to assimilate, to maintain their own culture, or to adopt a different (in their views better) culture altogether (Lola and Noni aspiring to their image of an English way of life), Kiran Desai was trying to stimulate the reader's thinking. It would have been more effective for me if she'd used a stronger narrative to do so.

Like scotsbookie, I was tantalised by occasional flashes of characterisation, and short passages of pacey narrative, and am left wishing there had been more of these.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

On the seats nearest the ticket barriers, on the concourse, at about 08:45.